The stages of change diagram is an amalgam of several sources. Everyone who faces a change in some part of their life faces a progression of sequential stages. Briefly, the stages of change are:
- Denial – belief that the change will not happen and someone will get things back to normal
- Resistance – subtle or obvious opposition to the change to protect the status quo
- Exploration – recognition that change will happen and willingness to let go of the past and move forward without all the answers
- Commitment – change internalized to the point where people feel in control again
As noted previously, this change journey is highly individual. Depending on the specific change and individual circumstances, the length and difficulty of the journey will vary. Your job as a leader or manager of change is to help team members move through this sequence with deliberate speed. However, the neutral zone - the gap between resistance and exploration - can be an especially difficult time for people in change and change efforts are particularly susceptible to stalling because of this. Keeping people on-track requires helping them move to exploration. It’s in exploration that people begin to see possibilities and leave the malaise of the neutral zone.
Moving to exploration won’t happen if people don’t feel safe in trying new things. The disruption of change can be paralyzing by itself. If the environment is perceived as unsafe, it only makes matters worse. Your job as a change leader relative to this challenge is to encourage risk-taking and innovation and recognize and reward the kind of innovative and risk-taking behavior that:
- Demonstrates exploration – trying new ways
- Moves the change forward in material ways
- Is consistent with the vision for the new organization